North - Lamezia Terme, Campora San Giovanni, Amantea, Fiumefredo Bruzio, Pizzo, Tropea, Paola, Belvedere, Orsomarso, Diamante, Scalea & South – Badolato, Soverato, Sant’Andrea Apostolo, Corilgiano Rossano, Schiavonea & Metaponto.
First of all, we are now both EU citizens, so maybe some of the information contained in this chapter about moving countries might not be relevant for everyone. Being EU citizens means that we have freedom of movement to live anywhere in the European Union, gotta love the EU (not to mention the free roaming). We leave Catania, Sicily on the 2nd of January 2026. We walk to the train station, catch a 2 hour train to Messina, walk to the ferry station and catch a ferry from Messina to Villa San Giovane, now already in Calabria (mainland Italy), then catch another train to Lamezia Terme, then a shuttle bus to the airport to pick up our rental car for a couple of weeks (tired yet?). We rented a Fiat Panda from Sicily by Car and it costs 10 euros per day. We then drive for 20 minutes to our very nice apartment, Za Catarí, 478 Euros for 2 weeks, in Campora San Giovanni, a small, pleasant if a bit uninteresting seaside town. We are deliriously tired but very happy to be back in Calabria as this region has some of the most stunning places we’ve ever seen, and that goes for both villages and beaches. Once again we find it incredibly hard to find places open to have lunch outside the big cities or touristy places. Be aware that most restaurants and pizzerias only open after 6-7pm. Apparently “pranzo” is to be enjoyed at home, very grateful for Paul’s awesome cooking talents and Italian high quality fresh produce as we’re both lunch people. Also, be aware that outside the main cities and touristy places, most Italians don’t speak English (even most real estate agents) or any other languages and even menus aren’t translated, just a heads up in case you’re contemplating moving here, pick wisely or learn the lingo.
We book an online appointment and go to the Agenzia Entrate office in Lamezia Terme to get our Tax Numbers (Codice Fiscale). The entire process is very simple if you have already completed the form correctly, there is a very good Youtube video on how to do this. On the day, you present your passport and the application form to the receptionist and a little while later the officer comes with your tax numbers, the final cards should be posted to you within 4 weeks, or so they say… We then go to a used caryard and try to buy a car only to be told you have to be resident to do so, so we might have to speed up our change of transfer of residency request (EU citizens have 90 days to register if intending to take up residence in another EU country). Afterwards we find a fabulous, well priced pizzeria in Lamezia Terme (Donna Deda) that actually opens for lunch, great as we are celebrating our first interaction with the Italian bureaucracy, and the owner decides to undercharge us, what a great day, even the constant, cold rain is not bothering us. Another pizzeria near our accommodation also undercharges us, first time ever in many visits to Italy, I’m sensing maybe something to do with us speaking or at least trying our best to speak the language. Our time in Northern Calabria becomes a mix of sightseeing and house hunting. We visit the stunning hanging cities of Amantea and Fiumefredo Bruzio. We also see the lovely towns of Pizzo, Capo Vaticano and revisit the gorgeous Tropea, still one of the best beaches we’ve ever seen, in a most magical setting. What a great road trip on a very cold but sunny winter day. We also visit Paola (the Saint Francis of Paola Sanctuary), Belvedere Maritimo, Orsomarso (where we immediately fall in love with the town in the Pollino National Park), Diamante (a lovely seaside old town with colourful murals everywhere) and Scalea (a seaside resort with an allegedly high concentration of expats, mainly eastern Europeans and Russians), and again the weather is just perfect.
On the 15th of January we get a phone call with the brilliant news, our house in Portugal has been sold, and very well sold BTW. Now let the real house hunting season begin! As per the previous chapter, the Portuguese property market has exploded but in parts of Italy you can still find very good, affordable property and we can’t wait to get our teeth into bargain hunting! Its now the 16th of January and we move South and to the other coast (Ionian) as it’s time to explore yet another region. We drive back to Lamezia Terme Airport and swap cars (EuropeCar, another Fiat Panda, 10 euros a day for a month) and drive to the historical town of Badolato, also voted as one of the most beautiful villages (Borghi) in Italy.
We stop at Badolato Marina for pizza & wine (Angel Restaurant, great Calabrian pizza and house wine, it’s open for lunch, jackpot) and then check in at Nina’s House, Nonna Lucia (500 euros per month), our home for the next 16 days. The place is nicely renovated, has great mountain and ocean views and has all the mod cons however it was built on so many levels and has way too many vertiginous steps, seriously NOT suitable for people with even very slight mobility issues. Badolato Borgo really doesn’t disappoint as it hangs dramatically off a cliff and it has more pretty churches than one can count. Once again, we divide our time between sightseeing and house hunting. We visit the local towns of Sant’Andrea Apostolo dello Jonio (another of the most beautiful towns in Italy), Gerace and Soverato (considered one the best beach resort towns in the country, maybe). We also learn something new about ourselves nearly everyday. Staying in a Centro Storico really showed us what we are not interested in, small houses, small dark rooms, usually built on many, many, many levels in clustered spaces with plenty of neighbours, bars and heaps of tourists in the summer and shoulder seasons, living and learning I guess. It might sound very romantic for short stays, and believe me it is, but just not ideal to live in long term, however we can see why it might be a dream for some people. On the 1st of February we move to a nice 2 bedroom apartment (550 euros a month) we rented for 4 months in Schiavonea, very close to the beach, as now we’ll be checking out further north including heading towards Basilicata and Puglia. We see many houses but nothing really speaks to us. Then we visit a house in Metaponto in Basilicata and for the first time fall in love with a place that is in a gated community and only 800 metres from the beach. We realise that some people might really enjoy it but we freak out as it has the potential to become party central in the summer. There is a huge camping complex and tourist village nearby which are very noisy and chaotic in the summer, that means families, kids, teenagers, live entertainment, disco, karaoke, you name it. Back to the drawing board. BTW, one thing to keep in mind if you’re house hunting in both Sicily and most parts of Calabria is that most of the time you will have to choose between living too close to the coast, which sounds great but please refer to the “party central” comment above, or to live in the “borgos” (villages), mostly at altitude, not ideal for us since we’re runners, meaning, we have to get our car everyday to seek flatter, lower roads.
It’s now time for our second encounter with Italian bureaucracy as we want to apply to transfer our residency soon so we can buy a car before summer rental prices hit and also to get our Italian documents. We’d heard horrible histories about the Schiavonea Anagrafe (Registry Office), so we decide to try the one in Corigliano Rossano first. The guy is very nice and says our 4 month rental contract is valid but we should really apply in Schiavonea as we live down there. We then go to Schiavonea only to be served (not) by a horrible, hysterical, shouting little man who said we need a one year rental contract, barking a lot of of crap at us we know isn’t true, for example that you can buy a car without Italian residency. He dismisses any attempt of us explaining that we’re trying to buy a house within these 4 months and gets more aggressive by the minute until Paul drags me out of there before I say something we regret, a truly surreal, aweful experience. When we get home, we are truly grateful for red wine as murder is really not an option under the circumstances…
It’s now the 12th of February and it’s the beginning of what we call “Operation Portugal”. We need to make our way back to take care of a few things. So, we leave Schiavonea, drive back to Lamezia Terme Airport to return the car, get a bus back to the train station and check in at the B&B Sant’Eufemia (60 euros with breakfast, nice and conveniently close to the train station). Warning, yet another exhausting day coming up! The next morning we catch a 6 hour train from Lamezia Terme to Rome, then another train to Civitavecchia and a bus to the airport, where we pick up an enormous, 11 cubic metre van (373 euros plus 227 for the insurance for 9 days) to take back to Portugal. After a frantic pit stop at the supermarket (running late for the ferry 9 pm check in) to pick up some supplies for the ferry/van rides, we finally make our way to the port. We board the Grimaldi ferry from Civitavecchia to Barcelona, Spain, 23 hours, 210 euros, including our fares, the van and a comfortable private 2 bed cabin with a bathroom and a shower. The ferry is cool and has a pool and a casino, a couple of restaurants and some shops. It’s quite busy for this time of the year, mostly trucks, vans and campervans, and the weather is surprisingly good, smooth sailing, not bad for February.
Now we can tell you why we decided to do the whole van and driving to Portugal thing the way we did. First of all removal companies were charging about 3,000 euros to bring 5 cubic metres of contents to Italy which we thought excessive, and secondly, by doing it ourselves we were able to bring lots of cheaper, better Portuguese wines, heaps of olive oil, and a lot of things from Mercadona in Spain stopping along the way, thirdly we didn’t have to take a return flight to Portugal just to sign over the deed and catch up with friends. It cost roughly 700 for the van including insurance, 380 return ferry ride which included fares, the van and a private cabin with shower and about 500 euros in diesel and tolls, adding up to about 1,600 euros. And we saved on 2 flights to Portugal and back. So it made even more sense and we had complete control over what and how much we could bring with us.
Meanwhile, Portugal has been hit by 5 severe storms in 2 weeks with devastating effects as so has parts of Spain. The region we used to live has been particularly hit hard. Now besides being very concerned about our friends and neighbours, we have also to trace our route carefully to avoid flooded roads and landslides, but who needs the added stress??? By this time I have to add that Paul has taken masterfully to driving the van and it’s getting us everywhere with a little help from me when reversing into tighter parking spots. We leave the ferry at 10:00 pm and decide to drive 12 hours overnight through Spain to reach the city of Lousã, already in central Portugal, where we stay overnight and catch up with our friends. The next morning we drive to our now sold house in Verride (via a very alternative route as most of the region is still underwater) and load the van with all the boxes and bags of our stuff we decided to bring with us, including our awesome coffee machine and of course, our faithful Kitchen Aid. We then drive to Recheio, a wholesaler supermarket and fill up the rest of the van with copious amounts of our beloved Portuguese wine as well as some stuff we might miss from Portugal till we find local suppliers. Then we head for the town of Figueira da Foz, where a great friend lent us her very central apartment, so we don’t have to circulate with a full van nor hire yet another car. We leave everything in the van parked on the street as we know how safe small and medium towns in Portugal are. The following day we have a lazy, long catch up lunch with a group of 11 friends as were really trying to see everybody, maximising our time while we’re here, and of course we go out for drinks afterwards. The next day it’s time to sign the deed for the sale of our house. The process is fast and painless and we’re out in less than two hours with a nice cheque. Time to catch up with another friend and then go home and pack as we’re leaving the following morning, mission accomplished, everything working out a treat.
We wake up very early and drive for over 6 hours until we reach the outskirts of Madrid, where Paul has found a restaurant not to be missed. It turns out Paul was right, we have a fabulous lunch at the very traditional El Fermin, a delicious 4 course “Menu del Dia” for 15,50 euros per person (already discussed how Menu del Dia works in previous chapters about Spain), including a bottle of a delicious red wine with and a bottle of gaseosa (yes, they mix their red wine with gaseosa to reduce the alcohol content, in case they have to drive or go back to work, so don’t wonder if you ever order wine for lunch in Spain and it comes with a bottle of light lemonade), we would never commit this crime though, lemonade in our fabulous Spanish wine is sacrilege! Then we check in at the Ibis Budget in Alcorcon, 58 euros, and fold for the day, we’re so tired we go to sleep at 7pm. We relax the next morning and thoroughly enjoy staying in bed for a change. Now it’s time for a visit to Mercadona, another favourite Spanish supermarket to pick up heaps of spicy chouriço and some other supplies that might be harder to find in Italy. We then, of course, make our way back to El Fermin Restaurant for yet another glorious Menu Del Dia, if you follow us, you know the things we do for good food. Then it’s time to hit the road again and we drive 6.5 hours, from the outskirts of Madrid to the Port of Barcelona, where we board the same Grimaldi ferry back from Barcelona to Civitavecchia, another 23 hour internet detox, once again a nice cabin and smooth sailing considering it’s February. Just a warning!!! make sure you turn off your mobile data and put any devices into Flight mode before leaving port as once in international waters your roaming quota will be gobbled up in a matter of minutes and you’ll be screwed and have to pay for a new allowance. It’s happened to us twice before. Apparently once in international waters, even just crossing from Italy to Spain or France, if your device connects to a satellite data service you’ll consume all your allowance in no time.
We arrive in Civitavecchia at 10pm the following night and once again drive all night, then we try to sleep for a few hours. It’s now time to unload the van and the next morning Paul drives back to Civitavecchia (6.5 hours) to return the van, then train (6.5 hours) and bus back to Lamezia Terme Airport to pick up yet another rental for a month, 10 euros a day. He comes home exhausted but bearing not 2 but 3 delicious pizzas from our local as we’re exhausted but somehow in full celebration mode. Operation Portugal successfully completed. We’re worn out and need a few days to recover but it was definitely worth doing it ourselves. We choose to end this chapter now as, 1. it’s getting too long and 2. we believe that the focus now will change from moving to settling in and house hunting, hope you enjoyed the read and thanks again for following us
